At one point in the Mahābhārata, the great Indian epic, we come across a declaration so unusual that we pause to take in its dramatic import: yad na iha asti na tat kvacit (“what is not here is nowhere else to be found"; MBh. 1.56.34). The assertion is forthright, it lacks qualification, and, being part of an epic, has no ironic modality. It mea…